Tiliacora racemosa Colebr.

Tiliacora species are woody climbing shrubs, dioecious. Branches with distinct discoid shaped petiole scars. Leaves simple, alternate, lanceolate, broadly ovate, pinnately 3-5 veined, coriaceous, petioles twisted near the base, usually shorter in female plants than male plants. Inflorescences axillary, panicle, pseudoracemes or cauliflorous, few flowered, peduncled. Flowers unisexual, sessile. Male flowers, sepals 6-12, in series, inner series largest, outer series smallest, free, valvate, ovate, apex acute, petals 3-6, free, shorter than inner sepals, stamens 3-9, filaments free stout, peltate synandrium, anthers 2 loculed, introrse, obliquely dehisced, pistillode absent or occasional. Female flowers sepals and petals similar as in males, staminodes absent or sometimes present, carpels 3-15, apocarpous, ovules 1, style recurved, stigma simple. Fruits drupes, subglobose or obovoid, stipitate shortly, condyle linear, endocarp hard, deeply ruminate, seed horse shoeshaped, compressed cotyledons, flattened, fleshy, incumbent, longer than radicle.

Tiliacora species are dioecious i.e., male (staminate) flowers on one plant, and female (pistillate) flowers on another plant. Pollination is entomophilous i.e., by insects. Flowering/Fruiting: April-December.

Seeds may be dispersed by barochory i.e., gravitational dispersal, zoochory i.e., dispersal by birds or animals, anthropochory i.e., dispersal by humans.

Large woody climbing shrubs about 5-8 m tall. Stem woody, branches striated, sparingly puberulous to glabrous. Leaves simple, alternate, broadly ovate to lanceolate, subpalmate, 4-22 x 3-16 cm across, male plant leaves slightly larger than the female plants, base subcordate to subtruncate, margin lobed, apex acute to acuminate, coriaceous, thin, dark green, glabrous above, glaucous beneath, basal veins 2-3, lateral veins 3-5, impressed above and prominent beneath, veinlets fine and close, petiole slender, glabrous, thickened on both the ends, about 1.5-5 cm long. Inflorescence axillary or extra axillary, raceme cymes, pubescent, about 4-20 cm long, peduncles, about 1 cm long. Flowers unisexual, yellow. Male flowers, sepals 9, in 3 series, broadly ovate-elliptic, glabrous, inner series larger, about 1-1.5 x 0.8-1.5 mm across, outer series smaller, petals 6, concave, obovate, glabrous, yellow, about 1-1.5 mm long, stamens 6, free, about 3 mm long, anther longitudinally dehiscing, pedicels about 5-8 mm long. Female flowers sepals and petals similar as in male flowers, carpels 3-12, apocarpous, glabrous, about 1 mm long, ovule 1, style recurved, stigma simple. Fruits drupes, subobovoid to globose, compressed, glabrous, about 8-12 x 5-7 mm across, endocarp subovoid or horse shoe shaped, obscurely reticulate, style scars subbasal, cotyledons flattened fleshy.

Susceptible to insect pests and fungal diseases.

Along streams and rivers, altitude up to 2000 m. Cultivated in gardens as ornamental.

Roots grinded with water given as medicine for snake bite. Used in folk and siddha medicine.